


Voluntary Entrapment

by skyjacklegion



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Everyone Loves Shiro, Gen, might be s/k/l if you squint, slumber party time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 09:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7354456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyjacklegion/pseuds/skyjacklegion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lance gets it first, which is a surprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Voluntary Entrapment

The first time he tries to sleep in a room by himself doesn’t go well. He lays awake for hours, door propped open so he can see the hallway, staring at the box like it’d disappear, the door’d slam shut and all he’d be left with is four walls and a lingering sense of malice. He abandons his bed eventually, parking in the control room instead; Allura finds him asleep in the chair, hand gentle on his arm and it’s almost too much. She’s concerned, of course. He’s meant to be the responsible one. He learned not to show weakness, to keep himself to himself and his eyes on everyone else instead. It’s easier to survive, that way.

Lance gets it first, which is a surprise. He’s loud, obnoxious, rude and thoughtless but he’s a good person, underneath it all. He brings his blankets to Shiro’s room, leans against the doorway and makes sure not to dislodge the box propping it open. 

“You know, you could probably just- ....nevermind. Mind if I sleep in here?”

“Everything alright?” Shiro asks, watching the line of Lance’s shoulders tense, the way his jaw works as he looks between Shiro and the floor. 

“I’ve got like five siblings, man. I need noise. And you don’t like sleepin’ alone.”

“Wh-” Lance bullies his way onto his bed like he bullies his way into everyone else’s lives, blankets thrown over them both, curled in a tight ball against the wall. It’s all Shiro can do to stare at him for a moment, metal arm held clear, balanced awkwardly on his elbow. 

Something in his chest softens. 

“Sure.”

Pidge. Pidge with their big brain and bigger heart, with the way they just curl in on themselves and pretend that nobody else knows what’s going on. Lonely Pidge, who tries to take on so much and keeps their cards close to their chest.

It’s been a shitty day, Lance is refusing to shut up, Shiro’s headache is somewhere in the stratosphere and Pidge walks in with their blankets like it’s a foregone conclusion that Shiro’s gonna let them stay. 

He does, Pidge curled against his chest and Lance bracketing them, back smushed against the wall.

Shiro sleeps better. He wakes less drained, feels less like a monster when the nightmares aren’t only his own. Pidge sleeps loud, snores and throws their arms across them both and Lance just laughs, looking over the kid’s shoulder at him in the dark.

“They look up to you, y’know.” Lance says, voice whisper soft. 

He doesn’t know if he wants that.  

Hunk, surprisingly, is next. He’s nervous, almost talking himself out of it because that’s what he does, just talks himself down. They’ve all had enough of it, from Lance punching him in the arm to Pidge’s hand on his shoulder and Shiro doesn’t say anything, just waits until he’s done talking and scoots over on the bed. They’re going to need a bigger one. He doesn’t really care. 

“I mean, if you’re invit-”

“They just sort of decided on their own.” Shiro says with a soft sort of smile, stomach twisting itself in knots. He’s worried, a little, that they’ll decide not to be there someday, too. That he’ll have to lay awake and count the seconds until the next day chimes. He loses time, loses space. 

Loses  _ place _ .

“Yeah, dude. Come on over. More the merrier.” Lance says from where he’s sprawled on Shiro’s bed, like he isn’t currently using Pidge as an armrest and the kid doesn’t even care. 

Shiro keeps himself between them and the door, just in case. Hunk takes up Lance’s spot, blankets bundled around him so his back doesn’t get cold and Lance tucks him in like he’s done it once or twice before. 

“We both don’t- He doesn’t like it when his back is cold.” Lance says, defensively. Shiro just reaches over Pidge and holds up his hand, waiting a heartbeat for Lance to take it.

They sleep like that, fingers warm and wake with clammy palms. 

Keith, he’s-. He’s alone. All the time. He acts like he wants to be but Shiro’s seen that look in his eyes before, knows the crushing weight of feeling responsible for things he can’t change. He’s been talking to Allura about it, the way they both lost time. She lost ten thousand years, an entire planet. Her father. 

Shiro lost a year but he can’t ever go home, not like this. Not when he knows what’s out there, what crawls and clatters in the dark. The needs of the many over the needs of one, so he doesn’t say anything to Keith, waits for him to come to the decision on his own. 

He should know better. It takes a month and Lance nearly  _ dying _ before Keith’s in the doorway, pillow clutched against his chest. He waits until they’re almost all asleep so it’s all Shiro can do to turn, dislodging Pidge and letting go of Lance, his heart in his throat for a moment at someone hovering in the doorway, hand out like they’re about to close it what if, what-

“I-” Keith starts, and Shiro hauls himself out of bad memories long enough to hold out a hand. It takes some maneuvering, especially because Keith is prickly as hell but eventually his back is warm against Shiro’s chest and he can reach across again and snag Lance’s hand in his sleep. Hunk’s leg is a comforting pressure against his own, Pidge’s warm breath ghosting over his arm and he tries not to think about how he can feel it on the metal, or how he’s gotten so used to having his  _ human _ arm sprawled out underneath everyone that he doesn’t even react when he loses feeling in it anymore. 

“This is stupid.” Keith says after a moment, and Shiro ducks his head to laugh, tucking the smaller man’s head under his chin.

“Go to sleep, Keith.” He pretends he doesn’t see the way Keith reaches out, how he curls an arm across Pidge and Lance to grab a fistful of Hunk’s shirt.

He’s going to need a bigger bed.

 


End file.
